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Hemp industry to boom in 2019, economists predict

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — National economists predict 2019 will be a big win for the hemp industry as the 2018 farm bill included language legalizing the crop across the country.

Here at home, farmers from both Kansas and Missouri will start planting the crop this year and this also means big business for the shops selling hemp too.

Eric Oligschlaeger is the CEO and President of Hemp Haus in Kansas City, Missouri and opened the store four months ago and wanted to jump in the hemp market when he saw the industry take off in 2014.

"I started watching the CBD boom just start at that very part," said Oligschlaeger.

Since then, he can't believe the interest and demand he's received so far, and already looking to add more locations.

"We're going to expand to a few more out, we're getting more of an online presence as well so we're going to get a shipping facility," said Oligschlaeger

Hemp is a relative to marijuana but doesn't contain more than .03-percent THC, the high-inducing aspect of cannabis. Oligschlaeger currently sells hemp in the form of skin care products, gels and vaping materials.

Also the acres to supply these products are surging too, the 2017 U.S. hemp crop report showed that over 23,000 acres of hemp were cultivated and in 2018 that sum grew to over 77,000 acres and with Missouri and Kansas now in the mix, you'd expect to see that number swell even more.

Oligschlaeger said many stores are waiting on the FDA to clear food and beverage and then they'll be able to sell more items.

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